The Blue Hour is one of my favourite times of day.
It’s that time between twilight and full night when the sun is below the horizon and the world is coloured a soft shade of deep blue and other colours start to leach away. It’s a time when I often find myself in my sewing room, pottering about; it’s not long enough to start anything big before I have to go to the kitchen to make dinner, but it’s too good to waste doing nothing.
I’ve at last begun, appropriately enough, a mostly blue and white quilt for the Husband’s bunk in Miz Lizzie. So far, all the blocks are from my sorted scraps and smaller stash pieces, but I suspect I’ll need some more fabric soon, some bits of dark blue.
Also included in the line up are pieces from Granny Maud’s Girl; she sent me leftovers from the quilt she made for her father from his old shirts, and I’ve made entertaining use of the patches featuring pockets! I’m getting along nicely, a couple of blocks here, a couple more there, and making good use of my Blue Hour time. This early layout is most of the dark centres with light out-sides. Coming soon are the light centres with dark outsides…
And because of course all colour has a sound track, I leave you with Acker Bilk and the marvellously and appropriately named Bent Fabric, playing The Blue Hour.
What do you do with your Blue Hour?
talltalesfromchiconia 
I love the blues and the flax color in the background.
The neutral background is my design wall, but I’m hoping for a fair bit of beige and taupe in the actual quilt itself…
It sets off the blue like sand on the ocean.
Exactly! And ties in perfectly with the fabric I chose for Miz Lizzie’s curtains.
Blue Hour – lovely. I love to spend the blue hour on calm summer nights in the garden, moths come out, pale flowers glow, all seems peaceful round about.
That sounds like a perfect Blue Hour… 🙂
What? No teal?
Nope. This isn’t a donation, it’s for us and Miz Lizzie, and there’s no teal in the colour scheme!
I love the little scraps making up the bigger block. It has a Japanese feel to it. My Blue Hour time? (Love the expression) I use it to wind down to the evening, settling myself onto the couch, organising my night’s handiwork (usually some hand sewing) and thinking about dinner. Often there is a little time for computer game too!
This is where all my scrap sorting comes in handy! As this is the Husband’s quilt, I’m being careful to avoid making it too girly. All my indigo scraps are being given a second chance to shine. Mine (a future production) will be quite different!
The Blue hour, you have coined a real phrase here. In winter its the time for closing the curtains, making sure we have logs in for the wood burner and settling down with a cup of tea and some mindless knitting, before the start of cooking dinner. In summer its a wander round the garden, pulling up an odd weed or a100, watering the flower tubs,noticing what needs to be done next and checking on the tadpoles in the pond. I love the new quilt.
I love the sound of your cosy evening with the curtains closed! The quilt’s coming along quite fast, considering it only really gets Blue Hour time!
I’m sure the husband is going to sleep as a rose under this cover ! 😀
Love the colours !!
It’s nice and masculine and the right size, wide enough to cover him completely, but not too big for the bunk.
I’m sure he’s going to love it !
I think you’re right 🙂
Oh what a “bluesy sound! Slow, restful and a little melancholy – nice! Love the shirt pocket squares, I have some shirts of my Dad’s and have been collecting some from thrift stores. They’re all de-constructed just waiting for inspiration.
You have to be aware that good quality shirting is more densely woven than regular quilting cotton, so use a sharp new needle when you start! I love how the fabrics look, and I’m using such a simple block that they come together sweetly and easily, so it’s almost stress free 🙂
Yes, perfect sound track for the blue hour. I’d have to say my blue hour is spent on the couch with my husband, watching “Eureka” on our home theater system. We’ve been through the whole series once already and immediately started over again when it ended. Yes, we’re a couple of nerds. Before that hour I’m still working in my studio and after (which would technically be my blue hour as you’ve defined it here) I either prepare for the next day in the studio or lose myself in fiction.
We’ve never had the series, but I went to Wikipedia to see what it was about, and I’m sorry we didn’t! Sounds like my cup of tea too…
Usually we are just coming in from the field…last set of the night. I love that time of day. Also, blue is my favorite color! In the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!! 🙂
The world is a beautiful place anytime, but at that time of day it’s special…
these colours are really restful
I think so too, and for a man’s quilt, I think they work very well.
These blues are some of my favorites, they look so good with white and sand. The Blue Hour, I’ll have to think on that…ours changes so much during the year….it would be about 3 pm in the winter and right now it’s happening around 8. I like the sound of it!
Yes, it’s a movable feast, but the effect is very similar whatever time it happens – or at least, it is here, where the effect of the changing seasons is less marked because we’re so much closer to the equator. Also, we don’t get the snugging-down in the cold effect 🙂
Great idea to use the blue hour! I like the idea of scrap busting as you know. How fabulous to be able to add the shirt fabrics too. They really go well with the other fabrics.
I too have been working on a quilt… This years F2F quilt! It is turning out beautiful and I am thinking about where to photograph it… It is large!
I think I need a few more days to assemble the top and write blogpost.
Hugs
Esther
It’s always hard to photograph the big ones! My washing line used to be the best place, but for really large quilts it’s not high enough. We have a piece of steel fencing mesh that the Husband has to place for me outside, on our patio, and I can peg quilts onto that and photograph them from the garden 🙂 Glad you like how this quilt’s coming along. I think I shall have to call it Blue Hour…
I think I will tape it to the patio doors frame… if the tape will hold, ha ha!
I will also have to measure the height of the fence. It may need to be the back up plan!
Hugs
Fingers crossed!
I love that color, always have. I have one (!) blue quilt. Isn´t that funny! Why don´t I make more blue quilts? And my blue fabric pile is the smallest! How come? Good luck with your Blue Hour!!
I think you’ve just given yourself a reason to go to the quilt fabric shop, and given yourself some inspiration to create a beautiful blue quilt!
Yeah, you are so right! 🙂
Actually, it was my husband’s shirts I cut up. Dad hated ironing and preferred T-shirts. It is great to see the bits are getting good use.
I still have lots more, but now that I have unearthed the bag again, I shall make more use of them. Some will definitely go into my bunk quilt. I must remember to use a new needle for quilting, though; the fine, dense weave of the shirting is harder to quilt than quilting fabric.